Water Safety Plans

Drinking Water Quality Management System

The World Health Organization (WHO) advocates the adoption of the Water Safety Plan (WSP) to ensure drinking water safety through risk management including identification of areas where potential contamination in the internal plumbing system may occur and devising appropriate control measures. The Water Supplies Department (WSD) developed and implemented the departmental WSP in 2007 in accordance with the WHO’s recommendations to ensure drinking water quality from source to distribution. In regard to the inside services, WSD has also spelt out in the WSP its regulatory, monitoring and advisory role. Moreover, WSD has launched an integrated Drinking Water Quality Management System in 2017 to further strengthen its water quality management via appropriate institutional structure, water quality policy and WSP ensuring appropriate resource allocation, communication and training/education.

Notwithstanding that the water supplied by WSD is safe to drink, the water quality could be affected in the internal plumbing systems due to various factors, such as the drinking water tank is not properly cleaned, or the internal water supply system is contaminated due to stagnation of water or use of inappropriate plumbing materials. In view of this, WSD has committed to promoting WSP to building owners/property management agents on how to develop and implement WSP for buildings in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO, and will enhance the existing "Quality Water Supply Scheme for Buildings - Fresh Water (Plus)" and launch the “Quality Water Supply Scheme for Buildings – Fresh Water (Management System)” (the “Scheme”) to provide incentive to encourage building owners/property management agencies to participate in the Scheme to enhance water quality in their buildings.

Water Safety Plan for Building Leaflet

Under the Scheme, a Designated Person (DP) (such as a property management staff), who is conversant with the operations of the building and is supported by appropriate assisting staff (such as technical staff responsible for the maintenance of internal plumbing systems), is needed to be appointed with the responsibility to develop and implement the WSP for the building.

WSPs for Buildings Operation Flowchart

The WSP for the building can be developed through the following steps:

Understand the building’s internal plumbing system;

Assess and identify areas in the internal plumbing system where there may be risks of contamination, e.g. water storage tanks could be contaminated by the ingress of foreign objects;

Implement and monitor the corresponding control measures to prevent or reduce the occurrence of the associated risks, e.g. periodic inspection of water storage tanks to ensure that the covers are locked; and

Perform periodic compliance check-ups to ensure that the WSP is implemented effectively.

Depending on the complexity of certain internal plumbing systems, qualified persons (QPs) such as building services engineers (BSEs), building surveyors (BSs) or licensed plumbers (LPs) are to be engaged as appropriate to help perform risk assessments including identification of areas where potential contamination of the internal plumbing system may occur. WSD has organised a series of training sessions and workshops for the QPs/consultants to equip the industry for providing such services. While more such training sessions or workshops will be organised to train up more QPs/consultants, please download the following lists of trained QPs and consultants:-

To facilitate development and implementation of WSPs for buildings, WSD has prepared the “Guidelines for Drinking Water Safety Plans for Buildings in Hong Kong” (the “Guidelines”) and WSP templates for general buildings (such as residential or office buildings) and specific buildings (such as schools and residential care homes for the elderly (RCHE)). WSD has completed the pilot schemes on the use of the Guidelines and templates on residential buildings, schools and RCHE respectively. As regards WSP templates for other specific buildings (such as hospitals), they are being developed and will be subject to the testing of relevant pilot schemes. Completed specific templates will be uploaded to WSD website.

Guidelines for Drinking Water Safety Plans for Buildings in Hong Kong

Drinking Water Safety Plan Template for General Buildings in Hong Kong

The WHO welcomed WSD’s action in devising these guidelines and templates, which are considered conducive to promoting the implementation of the WSPB. The guidelines and templates have been uploaded to a website jointly managed by the WHO and the International Water Association for international reference.

Further, WSD has organised briefings to property management agents and plumbing practitioners in regard to the development of WSPs for buildings and more will be organised as and when required. A help desk has been set up to provide technical support to building owners/property management agents.

Why should I join the Scheme?

It is possible that most of the control measures, e.g. locking the water tank covers and regular cleaning of the water tanks, have already been included in the routine operation and maintenance of the building’s internal plumbing system. Yet, the WSP provides a systematic approach to enhance water safety firstly through assessments along the whole water supply chain of the building, to identify areas where potential contamination in the internal plumbing system may occur, and implement and monitor the relevant control measures in order to prevent or reduce the risks. Property management agents of those buildings which have developed and implemented the WSPs can apply to WSD for joining the Scheme. Successful applicants will be awarded with a certificate in recognition of their efforts in maintaining their internal plumbing systems and uphold drinking water safety.

What are the expected additional resources for joining the Scheme?

The Scheme requires routine general checking (such as routine inspection of water storage tanks) and specific inspection (such as checking the performance of the water pumps). In general, the property management staff can undertake the work of DP involving general monitoring of control measures, while the QP engaged could be responsible for the more specific monitoring duties. In addition, once the WSP for the building is up and running for a period of time, it is also recommended that periodic compliance check-ups and updates of the WSP are necessary as they ensure that the WSP remains a powerful and useful tool for continuously upholding the water quality in the building. Against this, in addition to routine inspection and cleaning of water storage tanks, those buildings joining the Scheme need to engage a QP to conduct annual specific monitoring and another person (either an internal staff not involved in the implementation of the WSP or an external third party) to conduct periodic compliance check-ups. Such annual monitoring and check-ups would require about two to three man-day for a building with general internal plumbing layout. Apart from the above, it may take a longer time for more complicated internal plumbing systems and when QP is engaged to develop or update the WSP for the building.

Help Desk

WSD has set up a help desk to provide technical support to building owners/property management agents on WSP for buildings. The help desk can be reached through a telephone hotline, fax or e-mail as follows: